A Turkish bath or hammam is not simply a means to get clean but is also a ritualistic experience, one made up of hot steam, detoxifying body treatments and a soothing cup of tea.

A Turkish bath – Turkish hamam is a hot steam hydro-therapy treatment which has a miraculous effect on both the mental and physical state of everyone able to enjoy its benefits to the full.

5 benefits of Hammam

1- Relieves stress.
2- Cleans the skin.
3- Eliminates toxins.
4- Improves blood circulation.
5- Clears respiratory tract.

Steam has beneficial effects on your body and mind keeping stress at bay

UK-based nutritionist Sarah Flower advises a Turkish bath is a natural way to remove toxins from the body including cholesterol, heavy metals, salt, alcohol and even nicotine.

‘These baths have also been proven to help with mental health, as it helps to aid true relaxation and stimulate your immune system, increase your circulation and aid lymphatic drainage.’ the expert said.

Sitting in a hot, dry sauna or hot, humid steam room offers a number of health benefits. These include:

• an elevated body temperature, which works as a fever would to boost immunity by increasing white blood cell production
• heavy sweating, which helps eliminate toxins, chemicals and other impurities from the skin
• increased heart rate, blood circulation and metabolic rate
• looser, relaxed muscles after exercise
• relief for stress, tension and high blood pressure
• sense of mental well-being and rejuvenation.

A Turkish bath is the perfect remedy for stress and the uncomfortable physiological reactions it can provoke thanks to the soothing and all-round relaxing effect the hot steam has on both body and mind.

What is a Turkish bath, what is it for and how does it work? What are the properties and benefits of this steam bath, also called a Hammam? And finally, is it suitable for everyone? Let’s find out together

But not everyone knows that the Turkish bath is not only a practice linked to beauty, but a real curative treatment that has beneficial effects on the whole organism and that is very effective in the prevention and treatment of some specific diseases.

But what exactly is the Turkish bath?
The Turkish bath is essentially a steam bath whose positive effects are found not only on an aesthetic and organic level but also on a psychological level.

Specifically, it is a hydrotherapy treatment that is carried out in an environment where the temperature is around 50 ° (at the height of the head, on the feet it is instead of about 20 °), with a humidity rate that can even reach 100%.

Inside the rooms in which the Turkish bath is performed, you are comfortably seated or lying on stone or marble benches, and you relax by inhaling the warm steam that acts on your breathing but also promotes sweating and consequently the elimination of toxins.

Usually inside the Turkish bath is proposed a path to follow that starts with 15 minutes in a heated room and rich in steam (Calidarium), continues with a few minutes in a warm room (Tepidarium), useful to re-acclimatize a before diving in cold water (Frigidarium) for half a minute to tone the body. The cycle can be repeated a second time or you can go directly to the relaxation phase in which a relaxing and reactivating massage based on essential oils is practiced.

Background
The origins of the Turkish bath are lost in the mists of time. We can in fact find traces of this practice already among the ancient Egyptians, between the Greeks and the Romans.

Although they certainly did not have the medical-scientific skills to assert it with full knowledge of the facts, these peoples had already noticed how the steam generated by the high temperatures invigorated and regenerated not only the body but also the mind.

After the fall of the Holy Roman Empire, the Arabs resumed this practice, making them and creating special baths, the so-called “hammams”, a term that in Arabic means “to warm up.” Unlike what happened among the Romans, the Arab hammams were smaller, so it could only be entered in small groups.

Turkish hamam Benefits
The benefits that can be derived from the Turkish bath are remarkable, first of all, the fact of fighting stress and tension.

On a physical level, the circulation is certainly benefiting from the effects of the Turkish bath: heat, in fact, determines dilation of the blood vessels, and thus promotes circulation.

But the greatest benefits of this treatment probably concern the epidermis, which undergoes a profound purification through this ritual.

The heat, in fact, determines the opening of the pores, so that, thanks to sweating, the skin eliminates the harmful substances absorbed in everyday life, such as the pollution of the big cities or the drugs are taken on.

On an aesthetic level, the benefits of the Turkish bath are immediately visible: after just one session, the skin immediately appears brighter and smoother, almost rejuvenated, and slowly, especially if the treatment is repeated regularly, recovers its natural elasticity. This happens because sweat stimulates cell renewal, allowing the skin to regenerate faster. And that is why, in order to favor this process, after the Turkish bath, it is advisable to wear a glove of horsehair all over the epidermis to completely remove the dead cells.

Finally, as anticipated, the benefits of the Turkish bath also extend to the psyche; in fact, this practice induces a state of relaxation that reduces stress, helping the nervous system to cope with the multiple tensions it is constantly subjected to in everyday life.

Contraindications
While presenting so many benefits, the Turkish bath is not recommended for everyone. There are, for example, people who tolerate such high temperatures and humidity levels – and for which the experience would be anything but relaxing – and who could experience pressure drops, dizziness or feeling of throbbing temples.

Even if you suffer from cardiovascular, venereal or kidney problems, it is not advisable to take a Turkish bath, as well as to women who are pregnant or during the menstrual cycle.

In any case, it is important to be very careful about hydration as the strong sweating that causes the Turkish bath can dehydrate the body and it is necessary to replenish abundant liquids (water, fruit and vegetable extracts, herbal teas, etc.) once finished the treatment.

However, since it is a practice not to be taken lightly, it is always best to check with your doctor if a Turkish bath is recommended or not.

Turkish bath or sauna?
Sometimes we get confused, but these are two very different treatments, but they also have something in common, especially in the benefits they allow us to obtain.

Both purify the skin due to high perspiration, reinvigorate the lymphatic system helping to eliminate toxins and superfluous fats, promote tissue regeneration, making the skin more resistant, regulate blood pressure thanks to vasodilation and perform an intense training action against the blood vessels, thanks to thermal rebalancing implemented with cold showers after the sessions.

The differences consist in the fact that while the sauna is typically a dry environment completely covered with wood, equipped with benches where it is possible to sit or relax, the Turkish bath, is very wet, is covered in marble or stone.

In the sauna the heat is generated by a stove and the temperatures vary from around 50 ° to about 85 °, while in the Turkish bath the heat is radiant, that is it is diffused thanks to the steam through the benches, along the walls, up to the ceiling, for than fall back towards the center of the environment.

Finally, while in the sauna the humidity is almost non-existent (it can reach a maximum of 10/15%) and the heat is strong and dry, in the Turkish bath it is very high (90/100%) and forms a mist of steam that brings the temperatures from 20/25 ° C of the floor level to 40/45 ° C of the head level.

Perhaps not everyone knows that …
In the Arab world initially, the Turkish bath ritual was imbued with religious significance, as a practice of purification that allowed one to get closer to Allah and, as well as a ritual of well-being, was intense as a moment of aggregation and socialization.